The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Released on April 1, 1992 for the Super Nintendo by Nintendo, and developed by Nintendo EAD, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past returns the action-RPG series to a top-down view for Link's first and only 16-bit adventure.

I bought an SNES because I wanted to play Street Fighter II at my house. Kick stupid Guile in the face with Ryu from the comfort of my den? What could be better? In January of 1995, Blockbuster had a used copy of Super Street Fighter II for $5. That's like the same price as a rental! Add to that,  Wal-Mart was selling an SNES for $100! I'd just pooled my Christmas cash (some from returning gifts), and I had $120, enough to get both, pay the taxes, AND get this sweet book about how to draw boats that I saw at the art store.

There's a great diagram for a shrimp boat in here.

I had an okay time with Super Street Fighter II. It's a good game. However, after a few days playing it, I felt strangely empty. My cousin, Adrian, came over one day, and seemed to notice I was getting tired of it.
"You should try the game that came with the Super Nintendo," he said. "That Zelda one."
"Zelda games are lame," I said, having never played a Zelda game in my life.
I had just turned 13 at the time, and was at the tail end of a period of personal funk--that time in life where I was tired of being treated like a kid, and only having access to things I'd felt I'd outgrown years before. My NES had started to grow extremely stale, but for some reason until then, upgrading to the SNES never occurred to me. Everything just felt old and boring, and to top it off, I was late blooming, still with my little kid voice and hairless armpits. Everything sucked! My grandfather died on Friday the 13th, January of 1995, and considering, out of 13 grandchildren, I was his only namesake, I just felt done. Life was a giant suck sandwich.

Just warp me to the Dark World already.

However, something about the SNES made me hopeful. Finally, something new...but my close-minded nature was stopping it from actually providing a new experience. I just wanted to play a game I'd already spent hours upon hours with in the arcade. Or did I? Obviously, SFII was already played out for me. After wrestling with Adrian's words for days (new stuff, amIrite, INFJ's?!), I finally pulled The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past out of the Super Nintendo box, ejected Super Street Fighter II from my SNES for what I assumed would be a short while, and put A Link to the Past in its place. The rest is history.

Game Over to my pre-Zelda life.

My little brother just happened to be in the room when the immersive opening screen and cinema of A Link to the Past started to roll, as by that point he'd forgiven me for drawing a (phenomenal) picture of his future shrimp boat getting attacked by a giant squid. Both of us sat transfixed through the title screen, the opening cinematic, and the incredible opening sequence, where young Link (or whatever you end up calling him--it's your choice when the game beings) is visited by the titular Princess Zelda in a dream. She asks for Link's help, before Link is suddenly awakened by his Uncle, who's headed off into a rainstorm to rescue the very Princess Zelda from Link's dream. At this point, you take control of Link, and run out of the house into the glorious weather effects of a 16-bit storm, find a path to the castle, and discover your uncle has been incapacitated. The old man gives you his sword and his mission, and your adventure begins.

Any 16-bit game that's lets you climb a high precipice and view the land below is great in  my book.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past immediately sucks the player in with its production values and atmosphere, but keeps them transfixed with its incredible gameplay. I immediately connected on a tactile level with the ease and way I could move Link around in the spaces of the game's overhead perspective. The controls felt more spot on than anything since the first Super Mario Bros. game I'd played years before. And now, as I play through this game again 25 years later, the controls still feel so spot on. The session for this review is the fourth time I've completely played through A Link to the Past. Every time has felt revelatory.

*Sigh* This view...

Link's movement is controlled with the D-Pad. There's a button assigned to his sword, one for using an item (whichever one the player has selected, i.e. the bow and arrow or lamp), one to perform a dash (once that move is acquired), and one to access the map. The start button brings up Link's vast inventory. The select button brings up save and quit options. It's a perfect scheme, perfectly executed. Good luck playing through this game, and then not expecting the buttons to map the same in whatever subsequent 1top-down action-RPG you play. They should all be like this.

Home sweet home...until this bird swoops me away.

Once Link rescues Zelda in the game's opening sequence, he's off to numerous dungeons to collect magical amulets, to help fight against the evil wizard who's kidnapping all of Hyrule's maidens--Hyrule of course being the fantastical, medieval styled land of mountains, forests, lakes, and rivers in which Link resides and traverses. Hyrule's dungeons, sprinkled liberally throughout the land, are a pinnacle of 2D game design. They're tough, yet their layouts are extremely logical, the work of game designers at the peak of their powers. All dungeons follow the same basic blueprint: fight through numerous, enemy-filled rooms, solve an extremely diverse assortment of puzzles, and collect keys to  pass through locked doors to progress.

Hmm, I really want that treasure, but I also really don't want to fall into a bottomless pit.

Each dungeon also contains a helpful map and compass, and a master key or "big key," which must be obtained to progress through each respective dungeon's final rooms, in order to access each's boss lair. Each dungeon also contains a new item for Link's inventory (i.e. a hookshot or fire rod), many of which Link needs to progress further through that dungeon, and which often give access to previously inaccessible areas of Hyrule.

Yay! Now I can access this belligerent fish creature!

Yes, it's the timeless gaming concept Nintendo perfected on the Super Nintendo, with games like this and Super Metroid: explore at your leisure, note spots that feel like places you could get to if you had the right item; eventually collect that item through your adventures, then come back to that spot with your new item. For example: 1. The other side of that broken bridge has a beam I think I could shoot a hook shot into. 2. Woah, cool, this dungeon's treasure is a hookshot. 3. Yes, when I shot my new hookshot into that beam, I got over that previously uncrossable ravine. Now I've got an entirely new area to explore! While the term "Metroidvania" would be coined after Castlevania: Symphony of the Night began to incorporate this same type of gameplay into the Castlevania franchise, in truth, Zelda games had also been doing this right here in 1992 (of course the '86 original The Legend of Zelda did something similar, but with far less structure).

Must. Go. Everywhere.

The incredible sense of discovery lent by this style of gameplay is tough to beat. During your 20+ hour journey, you'll want to get into ever nook and hollow of a Link to the Past's world. You'll want to find every piece of heart, not just to extend your life meter, but because you'll simply want to find them. Just seeing what's beyond the next dungeon door is exciting. With double-digit dungeons, a full adventure awaits. And with double-digit dungeons come a huge variety of bosses, a veritable rogue's gallery of nasty beasts who are just as fun to fight as they are to simply experience. Feelings of invention and originality permeate every moment of A Link to the Past, even though it's been aped by numerous games, including Legend of Zelda ones, ever since.

Vega? I thought I was done with Street Fighter II!

Composer, Koji Kondo, is also at the top of his game here, producing some of his most memorable, atmospheric, transportive musical compositions, all appearing at the perfect times. The sound effects are also heavenly, with the sound your sword makes when it hits a boss particularly satisfying. The graphics, even going down to each dungeon's color schemes, are iconic and beautiful. The production value is off the charts--check the game's ending, which brings a satisfying and cathartic resolution to every character you've met in Hyrule's story. Oh, yes, of course, the characters--Hyrule is full of charming non-player characters, as well. Many of them have interesting stories that Link can make himself a part of, as he solves people's problems all over Hyrule. This game features so much goodness it's almost unbelievable.

This ending didn't have to tell me what happened to Flute Boy, but it is all the better for it!

If you want to nitpick, yes, when a lot is happening onscreen, like in many Super Nintendo games, A Link to the Past has some graphical slowdown. Does the slowdown affect gameplay? No. It's actually kind of charming. Everything about this game is.

Yes!!! This fight is so awesome.

Maybe I'm a little biased, though. A Link to the Past had a magical impact on my life. It lifted me out of my preteen funk--immediately after playing it, I experienced a seemingly endless wonderful wave of new things:more Super Nintendo games, a rediscovery of the original Star Wars trilogy, new friends, my dad bought us a Go Cart, we found a white kitten with mystical powers in our yard who become the best pet I've ever had, I painted my room blue, I got a TV in my room and a bigger bed and a sweet new aquarium, I grew a hair in one of my armpits. Just on and on and on and on awesomeness. Most importantly, though, from that moment in my life on, I opened myself to new experiences. Hey, variety is the spice of life, right? But I try not to forget any of the great old experiences I've had either. It helps that playing through The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past now is just as invigorating as it was 25 years ago.


Graphics: 9.0/10.0

Sound: 10.0/10.0

Gameplay: 10.0/10.0

Lasting Value: 9.0/10.0


Overall: 10.0/10.0